Bush Theatre News

Full casting is today announced for Nuffield Southampton Theatres workshop production of Son of Rambow - The Musical, running at The Other Palace from 24 May - 2 June. Director of NST, Samuel Hodges, directs Gemma Goggin (Miss Smith), Scarlet Billham (Tina), Tom Mccall (Barry), Jon Tarcy (Didier), Richard Dempsey (Brother Joshua), Cat Simmons (Sarah) and Felix Warren as Will and Aaron Gelkoff as Lee. Son of Rambow - The Musical is an adaptation of the hit cult film featuring an original 80s pop soundtrack by two of the UK's most successful pop writers Miranda Cooper and Nick Coler with the book by Richard Marsh. This marks Cooper and Coler's debut in writing for the stage.

Chrissy Metz, the Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominated star of the NBC drama This Is Us, will make her stage debut in Neil LaBute's critically acclaimed play Fat Pig at the Geffen Playhouse.

Last year, HOME's annual Orbit Festival looked at our place in the world. This year's Orbit Festival takes it one stage further by presenting new work from theatre-makers across the globe who want to explore how we face the world, our relationship with the past, how we remember, the stories we tell ourselves and what it is that makes us who we are today.

Following its world premiere last year as part of the Hull UK City of Culture, Tom Wells' Drip, co-produced by Script Club and Boundless Theatre, makes its Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut before embarking on a UK Autumn tour including a London run. Jane Fallowfield directs Andrew Finnigan who reprises his role as Liam. Opening at Paines Plough's Roundabout @ Summerhall, 20 - 26 August 2018 with further tour dates to be announced shortly.

Boundless Theatre today announces Lace Akpojaro to join the company for a major revival of Judy Upton's Confidence. Akpojaro takes on the role of Edwin, replacing Vauxhall Jermaine who has left the company due to unforeseen circumstances. First performed in 1998 at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Artistic Director of Boundless, Rob Drummer, directs the previously announced Tanya Burr in the role of Ella. The full cast are Anna Crichlow (Ruby), Will Pattle (Dean) and Rhys Yates (Ben). The production opens at Southwark Playhouse on 25 May with previews from 23 May.

Joining the Arcola's exciting and empowering production of Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, Patrice Naiambana (Barbershop Chronicles, National Theatre; The Caretaker, Bristol Old Vic), Jumoke Fashola (Inspirit, BBC Radio London's Sunday Breakfast Show; Dirty Little Secrets, London Festival of Cabaret), Christina Oshunniyi (Ife, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Africa Center; One Session, First Star Studios), Layo-Christina Akinlude (The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare's Globe; The Cane, Bush Theatre), and Marcy Dolapo Oni (Iya-Ile, Soho Theatre; The Marcy Project, OHTV) will appear as Baba Segi and his wives.

The UK revival of Beirut by American playwright and author Alan Bowne is set to be performed at Park Theatre from 12th June to 7th July 2018. Written in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS crisis (which the playwright died of at 44 years old), Beirut is a cutting examination of a society ravaged by a nameless disease. Although written at a particular moment in history, the play transcends the issues of its time, and at its heart is a dark love story, questioning how society deals with the 'abnormal' in a society gone mad with fear and ignorance. The issues explored are particularly relevant to 2018, when viruses such as Sars and Zika are prominent, and with an increasing and inevitable resistance to antibiotics.

In 1968, playwright David Edgar was 20 years old. It was also the year of some of the most important and formative events in modern history, including the Paris student revolt, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech, and the ongoing war in Vietnam. Trying It On is a new play written and performed by David Edgar, which reflects on the legacy of this momentous year, drawing on first-person interviews with some of the leading political figures of the time, as well as contemporary activists. The performance also marks David's first professional stage performance in this contemplative one-man play.

The UK revival of Beirut by American playwright and author Alan Bowne is set to be performed at Park Theatre from 12th June to 7th July 2018. Written in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS crisis (which the playwright died of at 44 years old), Beirut is a cutting examination of a society ravaged by a nameless disease. Although written at a particular moment in history, the play transcends the issues of its time, and at its heart is a dark love story, questioning how society deals with the 'abnormal' in a society gone mad with fear and ignorance.

Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director), in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, presents the world premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview, directed by Soho Rep. Artistic Director Sarah Benson, May 29 - July 1. Following her "inventive," "pulse-pounding" We Are Proud to Present…(The New York Times, Time Out New York, and New York Magazine Critics' Picks), Sibblies Drury returns to Soho Rep. with Fairview, a play that shows us that nothing's funnier than "family drama."

As Mike Bartlett's first play Not Talking receives its world stage premiere at Arcola Theatre, Defibrillator and Arcola Theatre, today announce a post-show Q&A session with the Olivier Award-winning playwright. Journalist, Mark Lawson will host a post-show talk with Bartlett on Monday 14 May - the play beings at 7.30pm with the talk following at 8.45pm.

The Archive Residency is a vital incubator for New York City's most electrifying independent theater companies. This two-year residency offers companies an artistic home for the development and presentation of a new work. Each residency culminates with a world premiere production. Now in its fifth year, the Archive Residency is a collaboration between New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater (likeminded neighbors in the historic Archive Building in the West Village).

The Archive Residency is a vital incubator for New York City's most electrifying independent theater companies. This two-year residency offers companies an artistic home for the development and presentation of a new work. Each residency culminates with a world premiere production. Now in its fifth year, the Archive Residency is a collaboration between New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater (likeminded neighbors in the historic Archive Building in the West Village).

Artistic Director of Defibrillator James Hillier directs David Horovitch (James), Gemma Lawrence (Amanda), Kika Markham (Lucy) and Lawrence Walker (Mark) in Not Talking. The production opens at the Arcola Theatre on 1 May, with previews from the 25 April, and runs until 2 June.

Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres Robert Hastie today announces the cast for Associate Director Javaad Alipoor's production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Dale Wasserman, from the novel by Ken Kesey - Nathan Amzi (Martini), Lucy Black (Nurse Ratched), Andrew Dennis (Ruckley and Aide Turkle), Harry Egan (Aide Warren), Joel Gillman (Randle P McMurphy), Clive Hayward (Dr Spivey), Tom Hodgkins (Scanlon), Arthur Hughes (Billy Bibbitt), Melissa Johns (Candy and Nurse Flinn), Mohammed Mansaray (Aide Williams), Shaun Mason (Cheswick), Jeremy Proulx (Chief Bromden), Jack Tarlton (Harding) and Shelley Williams (Sandra and Hospital Staff).

Mercury Theatre Colchester today announces the full cast and creative team for the world premiere of the 2017 Mercury Playwrighting Prize winner - Oliver Bennett's Europe After The Rain. Cara Nolan directs James Alexandrou (Will), Simon Haines (Max), Natasha Kafka (Marta) and Anna Koval (Yana) and the creative team includes Amelia Jane Hankin (Designer), Kiaran Kesby (Lighting Designer), Nuno Santos (Sound Designer) and Craig Hamblyn (Fight Director). Europe After the Rain opens in the Mercury Studio Theatre on the 31 May with previews from 25 May and runs until 9 June.

Artistic Director Josie Rourke said, "I'm delighted to announce two new productions at the Donmar, joining the previously announced THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, for my penultimate season, with all three directed by women.

Today, The Stable announces the full cast of THE RHYTHM METHOD, an extraordinary new contemporary British musical in the making. A show about the stuff that's difficult to talk about - sex, relationships and contraception.

Artistic Directors of Paines Plough James Grieve and George Perrin today announced casting and creative team for Roundabout, Paines Plough's award-winning portable in-the-round auditorium. Roundabout will showcase three world premieres across the country, with full dates to be announced in May.

Surgent Theatre today announces their production of Steven Dietz's Lonely Planet to open at Trafalgar Studio 2 in the run up to London's iconic Pride parade. The play originally premiered in the US at the Northlight Theatre, Illinois in 1993 and this production made its UK premiere at the Tabard Theatre last year. Ian Brown returns to direct Alexander McMorran (Jody) and Aaron Vodovoz (Carl) for this strictly limited run; opening on 14 June, with previews from 12 June and running until 7 July.